syntax

the study of the rules for the formation of grammatical sentences in a language.

the study of the patterns of formation of sentences and phrases from words.

the rules or patterns so studied:

English syntax.

a presentation of these:

a syntax of English.

an instance of these:

the syntax of a sentence.

2.

Logic.

that branch of modern logic that studies the various kinds of signs that occur in a system and the possible arrangements of those signs, complete abstraction being made of the meaning of the signs.

the outcome of such a study when directed upon a specified language.

3.

a system or orderly arrangement.

4.

Computers. the grammatical rules and structural patterns governing the ordered use of appropriate words and symbols for issuing commands, writing code, etc., in a particular software application or programming language.

c.1600, from French syntaxe, from Late Latin syntaxis, from Greek syntaxis "a putting together or in order, arrangement, syntax," from stem of syntassein "put in order," from syn- "together" (see syn-) + tassein "arrange" (see tactics).

syntax definition

The sequence in which words are put together to form sentences. In English, the usual sequence is subject, verb, and object.

Note: Syntactic languages, such as English, use word order to indicate word relationships. Inflected languages (seeinflection), such as Greek and Latin, use word endings and other inflections to indicate relationships.

language The structure of valid strings in a given language, as described by a grammar. For example, the syntax of a binary number could be expressed as binary_number = bit [ binary_number ] bit = "0" | "1" meaning that a binary number is a bit optionally followed by a binary number and a bit is a literal zero or one digit. The meaning of the language is given by its semantics. See also abstract syntax, concrete syntax. (1994-10-31)